The New Paper, Singapore, 6 August 1998

Same time, same place, same victim. But ...

Different ending

But he went back to same place, at the same time, and tried to rob the same victim - a year later.

Yesterday, Kanna Superamaniam, 26, was sentenced to three years jail and 12 strokes of the cane for the two charges.

He was jailed a further 16 months for a separate case of house-breaking and theft and another three offences of failing to report for urine tests.

He pleaded guilty to all the six charges.

The court heard that sometime in the middle of last year, the 31-year-old victim was leaving her Toa Payoh Lorong 6 home to meet a friend at about 2.30 am when Kanna went into the same lift as her.

As soon as the lift door closed, he took off his pants and started to masturbate in front of her.

The victim was stunned but did not do anything because she feared for her safety.

When the lift reached the ground floor, Kanna quickly ran off.

But on May 4 this year, he went back to the same block of flats at about the same time as the first offence.

This time, the victim was returning home from work when she noticed Kanna standing at the 12th floor staircase.

She ignored him, but he followed her home. When she asked him what he wanted, he said he wanted to overtake her. So she stepped back to let him pass.

But Kanna suddenly pulled out a knife with a 5cm blade from his pocket and threatened the victim.

STRUGGLE

In the ensuing struggle, he used his hand to strangle the victim's neck and tried to pull away a chain on the neck.

He also grabbed the victim from behind, tried to open her house door and grabbed her handbag.

But the woman screamed for help and resisted fiercely, forcing Kanna's knife to drop onto the floor. He then fled empty-handed.

He was arrested about two weeks later.

Straits Times, Singapore, 10 August 1998

Teen who killed rival gang member jailed

A SECRET society member who killed a member of a rival gang outside the Dhoby Ghaut MRT Station last October was jailed for seven years and ordered to be caned nine strokes.

Allan Tan Kei Loon, 18, a part-time waiter, had faced the death sentence as he had been charged at first with murdering Mr Png Hock Seng, also 18, who was a full-time national serviceman then.

Tan pleaded guilty on Friday to a reduced charge of causing Mr Png's death on Oct 25.

Tan belonged to the Sio Koon Tong secret society group 18, which operated at Ngee Ann City in Orchard Road. The dead man was a Sio Gi Ho member.

Four of Tan's six accomplices, all Sio Koon Tong members, have been tried for rioting and each sentenced to between 18 and 24 months' jail and five strokes of the cane.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Foo Cheong Ming said that when Mr Png and two friends got out of a taxi at the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station that day, Benedict Kho Lian Teck, 17; Ong Kian Heng and Martin Koh Boon Wei, both 18, asked which gang they belonged to.

The court heard that earlier on, at Bugis Junction, Kho and his friends had been attacked by a group claiming to be from the Sio Gi Ho.

When Mr Png said he was from Sio Gi Ho, the three set upon him, while a fourth member stood guard and warned his friends not to interfere. Tan and two others, whose cases are pending, joined in.

When Mr Png knelt and covered his head to ward off the blows, Tan stabbed him in the back.

The DPP urged the court to impose the maximum life imprisonment and 24 cane strokes, saying the violence was wanton and senseless and the attack, brutal, savage and unjustified.

Defence counsel Fong Weng Khai said in mitigation that his client lost his father to cancer three years ago and could not concentrate on his studies after that. Tan could have been jailed for life or for up to 10 years, and fined or caned.

The New Paper, Singapore, 13 August 1998

Pager Horror

Boy shivers every time his free pager goes off

JAILED: Rahim Basron molested the 11-year-old boy eight times in five weeks

He wants to meet and talk. He said he missed doing 'those things' to me.
- The 11-year-old schoolboy on the pager calls he received from Rahim Basron, who molested him eight times in five weeks

CANE TOO

Yesterday, Rahim was sentenced to eight years' jail and 18 strokes of the cane.
He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and caned for hurting the boy and molesting him.

Because this man 'controlled' him with it and molested him again and again and again...

BY MELVIN SINGH and RIANA ZAKIR

UNLIKE most kids, this 11-year-old boy didn't whoop with joy when he got a free pager.

True, he was eager to show it off to his friends.

But the Primary 5 student was also scared.

It was given by an odd-job worker who had already molested him four times to keep him under tabs.

The molester even warned: "I want to page you at all times."

It was bought from a 7-Eleven store in early April, less than a month after they met in a McDonald's restaurant near the boy's flat in Jurong.

Every vibration sent shivers down the boy's spine for the next three weeks.

Rahim Basron, 33, often paged the boy 10 times a day. The boy would get a tongue-lashing if he didn't return the page at once.

Recalled the boy in Malay: "He wants to meet and talk. He said he missed doing "those things' to me.

"I keep quiet when he says he thinks about me. I don't like it. If I don't want to meet him, he would scold me."

Rahim would take the boy to public toilets or to his Jurong East flat to molest him.

In five weeks, he molested the boy eight times.

Rahim paged the boy while he was in school, and as late as 11 pm.

"I was afraid the teachers would know. So I put it on vibrator mode all the time and kept it in my bag."

Reluctantly, the boy returned only half the pages, usually after school ended in late afternoon.

But that was not fast enough for Rahim.

"He scolded me for not calling back immediately."

The boy had to call from public phones, instead of his three-room Jurong flat, because his parents got suspicious easily.

Once, his mother spotted the pager.

"I lied that it belonged to my friend. My classmates knew I had a pager, but never asked where it came from."

So why didn't the boy return the pager or stop seeing Rahim?

He was scared of being bashed up.

He was slapped while trying to stop Rahim from molesting him the first time, in the toilet of Boon Lay Community Centre on March 17.

Didn't the boy confide in anyone?

"I have no very close friends that I can share secrets with, except Rahim. But I don't like him because he is always so angry."

Rahim even visited the boy often in his school canteen, chatting up the boy's friends.

The truth spilled out on April 27, when the boy was grilled by his school principal on Rahim's identity.

The pager is now with the police. The boy can't even remember its brand.

"I'm very happy the case is over. Now, he can't beat me or disturb me.

"I'm glad the pager is no longer with me. I don't want another pager, ever."

SNEAKY MOLESTER

THE boy's arms were dotted with "lovebites" from Rahim.

But the boy's mother thought they were mosquito bites and didn't probe.

Rahim had been sneaky throughout.

He made the boy hide under his bed whenever someone knocked on his door.

He only molested the boy behind closed doors when his flat, which he shared with his mother, was empty.

His favourite excuse - his mother had gone to Johor Baru.

"He even lied he was a supervisor and was 26, not 33," recalled the boy's mother in disgust.

To win the boy's trust, Rahim also showered him with gifts such as a watch, cheap cologne and a kris.

Said the mother in Malay, who talked to him twice on the phone when he called: "Rahim tried to sound sincere about being just a friend. He even took my son out for meals and sent him home, right to the doorstep."

Yesterday, Rahim stood forlornly before the judge, wearing a polo shirt with the Playboy bunny logo. His mother, stepfather and step-brother were also there.

In 1994, he was sentenced to 10 months' jail for pretending to be a Central Narcotics Bureau officer to molest two boys, aged eight and 10.

He had earlier told a government psychiatrist "he would repeat what he did once he became a free man".

Straits Times, Singapore, 21 August 1998

Many committed while out on bail

Youth gets 7½ years' jail for string of crimes

By Chi Chiew Sum

A 17-YEAR-OLD youth was sentenced yesterday to 7½ years' jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane for armed robbery, making and using counterfeit money, housebreaking, and robbery with hurt.

District Judge F.G. Remedios said Chin Chee Kin, although relatively young, deserved to be treated and sentenced as an adult because of the seriousness of his offences. Chin, unemployed, had also committed many of his crimes while out on bail on three charges of armed robbery.

Yesterday, the court heard that he committed armed robbery three times in one day at the Orchard MRT station on March 16 this year. Then, while he was out on bail on these charges, he robbed a computer shop owner in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 on April 14. He and his three accomplices attacked Mr Teo Hock Tiong and robbed him of about $1,500 in cash.

On April 22, he broke into a hairdressing salon with another accomplice and stole items such as shampoo and hairspray worth about $300.

On May 7, together with two accomplices, Chin also made three counterfeit $50 notes by using a computer, printer and scanner. The next day, he used one of the notes to buy packets of cigarettes and cans of soft drinks amounting to about $30.

As a result of these offences committed by him while on bail, the judge ruled that Chin needed to be dealt with differently from young people who commit crimes out of mischief. The judge also took into consideration Chin's previous convictions. He had been on probation before for theft and he was last sent to a boys' home for two years.

He was sentenced to 30 months for each of the three armed robbery charges, 30 months for the housebreaking and theft charge, five years for the charge of robbery with hurt and 30 months each for making and using counterfeit notes.

He has to serve a total prison sentence of 90 months as some of his jail terms are consecutive.